Kelvin, William, Lord

Kelvin, William, Lord (1824-1907), scientist, b. Belfast, Northern Ireland.

William Thomson, who became 1st Baron Kelvin of Largs, was the son of a teacher.

He was educated at Glasgow University and Cambridge University and became a professor of science at Glasgow by the time he was twenty-two.

He worked in science for more than half a century, producing 661 reports on his studies and taking out patents for seventy-one inventions.

Much of his work was with magnetism and electricity and he invented many meters for use with electrical equipment.

One of his inventions helped Morse code signals to be sent over an underwater cable and this made the trans-Atlantic telegraph cable, laid in 1866, successful.

He also invented a magnetic compass that could be used in an iron ship.

Lord Kelvin was the greatest scientist of his time in Britain and he is buried in Westminster Abbey.

See Joe D. Burchfield Lord Kelvin and the Age of the Earth